The Georgia Tech community operates much like a small town within the larger metro Atlanta area. As in any city, the news aims to serve a wide range of people with varied interests and levels of participation in campus life.
On the whole, campus news should be timely, accurate, relevant, and interesting to a large proportion of the Georgia Tech community.
What are we looking for in campus news stories?
- Timely: The subject is a recent event, upcoming event, or newly breaking news or issue.
- Accurate: Information is taken from reliable campus sources, cross referenced, copyedited, and fact checked.
- Relevant: The information is relatable or tied to people’s lives within the Tech community. Or, it localizes a national issue or topic.
- Interesting: People will enjoy reading about the subject and it could, in some way, enhance their Georgia Tech experience.
- Strategic: The information aligns with Georgia Tech's strategic plan and goals.
Areas of Emphasis
Campus communication covers a broad spectrum of information. It will emphasize those stories that support any of several key areas:
- Diversity
- Safety
- Sustainability
- Teaching and learning
- Campus leadership
- Tech’s influence
- Life at Tech
- Working at/for Tech
How Do We Find News?
- Face-to-face meetings with campus communicators, administrators, faculty, and students
- Social media
- Campus listservs and other communications
- External media
Determining Whether to Cover a Story
- How does the story connect to an area of emphasis or strategic goal?
- Who would be interested in knowing this information, or who does this affect?
- What is the value in sharing this with the rest of campus?
- Does sharing this story serve me, or others?
- Is now the time to write about or share this news? If you can only tell the story once, is there a better time to do it?
Elements of a Campus News Story
- Firsthand interviews with students, faculty, or staff members
- Supporting facts or data
- Background context and links to related content
- Accompanying media, such as photo or video
- Direction for more information (a website or other point of contact)
Other Things We Value
- Accuracy
- Timeliness
- Writing quality
- Consistency
- Brevity
- User experience
Where Does Campus News Get Distributed?
- Georgia Tech News Center
- Daily Digest
- The Whistle
- Other campus communication channels (print and online)
- Social media
Related Links
Homepage Feature Story Submission Guidelines
Campus communicators and students are encouraged to pitch story ideas for feature articles that will run on the homepage of gatech.edu. Please bring your story idea to the Editorial Planning meeting, which meets every Monday at 11 a.m. For more information, email Tamara Wilder at tamara.wilder@comm.gatech.edu.
About Gatech.edu Homepage Feature Stories
Gatech.edu is the Institute's official website. Two of the website's key objectives are:
- To provide useful and engaging information and to direct audiences to additional information about the Georgia Tech subjects they're interested in.
- To promote the Institute's values and positioning. One of the ways we accomplish this is through features stories, which are promoted on the gatech.edu homepage.
Editorial Guidelines
- Stories should be written in a clear, engaging, and accessible style that minimizes jargon and buzz words.
- Stories can range anywhere from 500 to 2,000 words.
- Articles must include at least one visual asset (photo, infographic, illustration, video, audio clip, recorded Skype interview, etc.).
- Each photo or illustration should have a one-sentence caption, plus a photo credit, if possible.
- Authors are responsible for verifying all facts, including dates, as well as the correct spelling of names of people and organizations.
- Please refer to and use our Editorial Guide. Please note that we use the serial, or Oxford, comma.
- Gatech.edu requires all authors to transfer exclusive copyright, including the right to electronic distribution, to the Georgia Institute of Technology.